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Dropship shop questions

by simplesite
12 replies
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Hello here,

I want to expand my current shop that directly offers my own items to customers. Now I want to start selling products from other companies but I have a few questions about how to setup a store.

1) My store is already set up in Joomla/joomshopping but dropshipping clearly has other requirements. Is there an out of the box script/package you would recommend or do dropshippers offer you a store front as well?

2)What typically happens when a sale is made? Do you get paid first and then you pay them?

3) How do you handle shipping if a customer can order items from different companies at once? Do you handle it like amazon with different carts or one shipping price?

I'd appreciate your help and insights.
#dropship #questions #shop
  • Profile picture of the author agmccall
    My ecommerce site is 100 percent dropship and I only use 1 supplier so it is easy.

    Basically you sell the products as if you own them. How you handle the sale with the dropshipper differs from company to company. I will tell you how mine works.

    Customer comes to my site and makes a purchase. I make a Purchase order and send it to my supplier, they ship the product and bill me. I keep the profit. Once the item is shipped they send us the tracking number, and we send it along to the customer.

    The only issue with selling your own products and dropshipping, or dropshipping with multiple vendors is the shipping. If a customer comes to your site and buys one of your items and a item that is to be drop shipped, there is your shippijng cost and the dropshippers shipping cost, just keep that in mind with pricing.

    al
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    "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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    • Profile picture of the author agmccall
      By the way, My ecommerce site is Free Shipping, I figure the shipping costs into my retail pricing

      al
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      "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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    • Profile picture of the author simplesite
      Thank you for explaining. What software did you use for your site? Magento, shopify, joomla? Did you built it yourself?

      Originally Posted by agmccall View Post


      The only issue with selling your own products and dropshipping, or dropshipping with multiple vendors is the shipping. If a customer comes to your site and buys one of your items and a item that is to be drop shipped, there is your shippijng cost and the dropshippers shipping cost, just keep that in mind with pricing.

      al
      This is exactly my issue.
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      • Profile picture of the author agmccall
        Originally Posted by simplesite View Post

        Thank you for explaining. What software did you use for your site? Magento, shopify, joomla? Did you built it yourself?
        currently our site is a custom site built on a shopping cart by quill designs. I would not recommend that solution to anyone. We are now having the site re-built using magento and can not wait for it to be done

        al
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        "Opportunity is missed by most people because it is dressed in overalls and looks like work." Thomas Edison

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  • Profile picture of the author Importexport
    Originally Posted by simplesite View Post

    Hello here,

    I want to expand my current shop that directly offers my own items to customers. Now I want to start selling products from other companies but I have a few questions about how to setup a store.

    I'd appreciate your help and insights.
    If you are already selling your own products, why not consider a low cost alternative to dropshipping that gives you you huge profits in comparison?

    I am talking about importing small quantities direct from real manufacturers. People, especially dropship wholesalers will immediately tell you that you must place big orders to buy direct from the factory, and that importing is difficult.

    Both of those are wrong. I have taught people in 9 countries how to do both and they are now successfully importing small orders from China. Several have started on a capital of around $300.

    You will find many posts on this forum in which people disillusioned by dropshipping say that margins are too small. OK, some do make good money, but mostly by selling high ticket items at low margins. If you think that is a good way to go, you should consider the risks.

    In most western countries consumer protection laws do not apply to B2B transactions. This means that when you buy from a dropship wholesaler you are buying on a B2B basis, but when you sell to a consumer, you are bound by consumer protection laws.

    Every time a customer returns goods to you and you have to refund their money, you have added that item to your inventory. Unless the goods are faulty or misrepresented by your supplier, and you cannot get a refund from them, can you then afford the cost of inventory if you are selling goods that for some reason your customers decide to return?
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    • Profile picture of the author simplesite
      Originally Posted by Importexport View Post

      If you are already selling your own products, why not consider a low cost alternative to dropshipping that gives you you huge profits in comparison?

      I am talking about importing small quantities direct from real manufacturers. People, especially dropship wholesalers will immediately tell you that you must place big orders to buy direct from the factory, and that importing is difficult.

      Both of those are wrong. I have taught people in 9 countries how to do both and they are now successfully importing small orders from China. Several have started on a capital of around $300.

      You will find many posts on this forum in which people disillusioned by dropshipping say that margins are too small. OK, some do make good money, but mostly by selling high ticket items at low margins. If you think that is a good way to go, you should consider the risks.

      In most western countries consumer protection laws do not apply to B2B transactions. This means that when you buy from a dropship wholesaler you are buying on a B2B basis, but when you sell to a consumer, you are bound by consumer protection laws.

      Every time a customer returns goods to you and you have to refund their money, you have added that item to your inventory. Unless the goods are faulty or misrepresented by your supplier, and you cannot get a refund from them, can you then afford the cost of inventory if you are selling goods that for some reason your customers decide to return?
      Thanks. I used to do this with American companies but now I created my own product and now the point is that I don't have enough room for more inventory.
      Since the shop is already online and I have a membership of over 27.000 I think this may be the easiest way to expand.
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  • Profile picture of the author alksense
    Originally Posted by simplesite View Post

    Hello here,

    I want to expand my current shop that directly offers my own items to customers. Now I want to start selling products from other companies but I have a few questions about how to setup a store.

    1) My store is already set up in Joomla/joomshopping but dropshipping clearly has other requirements. Is there an out of the box script/package you would recommend or do dropshippers offer you a store front as well?

    2)What typically happens when a sale is made? Do you get paid first and then you pay them?

    3) How do you handle shipping if a customer can order items from different companies at once? Do you handle it like amazon with different carts or one shipping price?

    I'd appreciate your help and insights.
    I don't know anything about Joomla so I can't answer that question... I currently have all my stores on the Shopify platform and I'm very happy with them.

    I work with lots of different drop ship suppliers (my biggest ecommerce site has over 60) and I use an app called eComHub to manage all of my orders. Shopify recognizes which products come from which vendors so when a customer places an order on one of my sites the POs (purchase orders) are automatically sent out to the correct suppliers. The suppliers then charge my credit card on file, enter the tracking information (which gets sent to my customer) and I keep the profits... gotta love automation

    Like Al, I also offer free shipping so it's no big deal if a customer buys 3 or 4 items from all different suppliers. When the tracking information gets sent to the customer it is on a per item basis so if they order 4 items they will receive 4 emails with different tracking numbers and the items that they correspond with.
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    • Profile picture of the author simplesite
      Originally Posted by alksense View Post


      I work with lots of different drop ship suppliers (my biggest ecommerce site has over 60) and I use an app called eComHub to manage all of my orders. Shopify recognizes which products come from which vendors so when a customer places an order on one of my sites the POs (purchase orders) are automatically sent out to the correct suppliers. The suppliers then charge my credit card on file, enter the tracking information (which gets sent to my customer) and I keep the profits... gotta love automation

      Like Al, I also offer free shipping so it's no big deal if a customer buys 3 or 4 items from all different suppliers. When the tracking information gets sent to the customer it is on a per item basis so if they order 4 items they will receive 4 emails with different tracking numbers and the items that they correspond with.
      This sounds like the perfect solution. I am not sure about your margins but I think for me in the beauty business, I need to make some serious calculations to realize this.
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    • Profile picture of the author twinkenterprises
      It sounds like a good set up how you have it all automated alksense.

      Originally Posted by alksense View Post

      I don't know anything about Joomla so I can't answer that question... I currently have all my stores on the Shopify platform and I'm very happy with them.

      I work with lots of different drop ship suppliers (my biggest ecommerce site has over 60) and I use an app called eComHub to manage all of my orders. Shopify recognizes which products come from which vendors so when a customer places an order on one of my sites the POs (purchase orders) are automatically sent out to the correct suppliers. The suppliers then charge my credit card on file, enter the tracking information (which gets sent to my customer) and I keep the profits... gotta love automation

      Like Al, I also offer free shipping so it's no big deal if a customer buys 3 or 4 items from all different suppliers. When the tracking information gets sent to the customer it is on a per item basis so if they order 4 items they will receive 4 emails with different tracking numbers and the items that they correspond with.
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    • Profile picture of the author bigotes
      Originally Posted by alksense View Post

      I don't know anything about Joomla so I can't answer that question... I currently have all my stores on the Shopify platform and I'm very happy with them.

      I work with lots of different drop ship suppliers (my biggest ecommerce site has over 60) and I use an app called eComHub to manage all of my orders. Shopify recognizes which products come from which vendors so when a customer places an order on one of my sites the POs (purchase orders) are automatically sent out to the correct suppliers. The suppliers then charge my credit card on file, enter the tracking information (which gets sent to my customer) and I keep the profits... gotta love automation

      Like Al, I also offer free shipping so it's no big deal if a customer buys 3 or 4 items from all different suppliers. When the tracking information gets sent to the customer it is on a per item basis so if they order 4 items they will receive 4 emails with different tracking numbers and the items that they correspond with.
      Very useful info... If you were to sell internationally, what would you do about shipping rates? For example: my customer is in Venezuela, and he buys an item that ships from Mexico and one item that ships from the US... Can you help me please?

      Thanks!!
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  • Profile picture of the author distantship
    Just want to share what I do with my case:

    1. I add products one by one using just ONE dropshiper and check their out of stock report regularly hence making sure I will not lose refund fees when my customer ordered out of stock items i don't aware of. (It happened quite a lot when I was so lazy to update my cart)

    2. I just order online when I made a sale and make the dropshipper to ship to customer address.

    3. It won't matter because I gained traffic mainly from organic search and since I only accept orders from the U.S. and set fixed price on shipping, it never causes any big issue. (Although in some cases the products was broken and I would have to ship again but all I need to do again is to ask customer to give me photo proof and then I send it to dropshiper and make them to ship again etc.)
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  • Profile picture of the author dollarswealth
    How do one get traffic for an ecommerce site
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